By all accounts, it was a sell-out night for Mumford and Sons in Boston. This was the opening show of an improbable North American arena tour, and these champions of folk rock buoyed the adoring crowd with an empathetic sing-a-long. There wasn’t a body unswayed by well-plucked choruses, or a lens wide enough to capture the sprawling array of guitar, ukulele, upright bass, banjo, accordion, drums, and horn section. Truly, it was a joy-filled night to celebrate the music and success of Mumford.
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Baby, Don’t You Cry Fergus & Geronimo have recently released their album Unlearn, which I’ve been listening to a lot over this past weekend. Absorbing the experimental pop infused music they put out in this album, there are elements of 50’s doo wop, rollicking 60’s and 70’s punk, british invasion, tribal percussions, to say the least it’s wide ranging, eclectic but also just a lot of fun. At first it may feel a bit jarring and strange because of all the stylistic changes, but it doesn’t seem to effect the overall quality of the album. It’s diverse, eclecticism could be…
1 CommentMarathon Baltimore Take Me Somewhere Ultimately, if you are reading this, you’ve already heard the story a bunch of times, but for posterity, Husband and Wife duo of Tennis spent months aboard a sailboat (cope dory) sailing the east coast. They took a chance at writing some songs based on their journeys, wrote, recorded and here we are in love with what they’ve done… both they symbolism and the music. Since the summer, tracks have surfaced again and again as the hype picked up. Finally now we get a full body of work in this LP. How is it as…
Leave a CommentCome Correck The do it yourself album does not come easy to many. Especially if you are a one man show. Multi-instrumentalist, Kurt von Stetten is such an artist. Playing every instrument on every song, he embodies a complete musician. His latest effort, Pyramid, is one of those albums that has a little bit of everything. Its got a down-tempo ballad in the aptly named ‘Love Song,’ its got a fun, quirky indie rock son in ‘1st Base.’ These songs are just plain fun to explore and its completely surprising that from what I’m told has limited music training, to…
1 CommentHeartbreaker Girls’ new EP Broken Dreams club released this week. The boys from San Francisco, wrote a follow up EP to their ’09 debut, Album, entitled Broken Dreams Club. As you might be able to discern from previous effort and released single, Heartbreaker, this EP is similarly, songs that are about relationships. The EP starts off with a fantastic track called ‘The Oh So Protective One,‘ a revisit to oldies that has a 50’s vibe and an amazing brass section that gives the idea of a ‘Prom Night for Broken Hearts.’ Heartbreaking track rightly named Heartbreaker is a perfect example…
Leave a CommentTidelands is the shimmering, new folk / americana album from the Moondoggies, a Seattle based quartet. The album is a fragile indie folk harmony driven album that will have you digging deeper and deeper each time. Whats great about this album, is each song seems to flow into the next, it’s got a great feel from beginning to end. To reiterate what it seems like everyone is saying, they wrote this album, as an album. A full album that each song is integrated to create a sum of parts, rather than parts making the sum. The album begins with single,…
1 CommentEau Claire, Wisconsin’s Meridene just released the follow up to their 2008 debut album, You’re Not Pretty. The aforementioned album, entitled Something Like Blood, is something of a power pop gem. Simply put, this album is really good. Something Like Blood was recorded at the home-studio of Bon Iver, April Base, in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Meridene also found support from fellow local musicians. The album was produced and mixed by Brian Moen (Peter Wolf Crier) with T.W. Walsh (formerly of Pedro The Lion and The Soft Drugs) mastering. The hook on the album is one I’ve been listening to…
Leave a CommentDoomsday Devices A few weeks ago, while attending the Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin show, I stood and listened to the two opening bands who were eye opening to say the least. It was definitely fun to hear, and I had to know more about each band. The first being Golden Bloom. Golden Bloom is multi-instrumentalist, frontman and natural born leader Shawn Fogel, a NY state born, musician who recorded his most recent album, Fan the Flames, entirely by himself. He then later brought in producers to flesh out the sound. What he was able to do is write…
1 CommentAfter a dozen or so listens through, The Walkmen’s Lisbon stands out as one of my favorite albums of 2010. Their emotional lyrics, jangly guitars and stripped down percussion is there as usual. The album kicks off with ‘Juveniles’ a bouncy jangly song complete with their shimmering guitars and Leithauser’s howling / crying-like voice. One of my favorite tracks comes on second, Angela Surf City, a rollicking rock song that employs a ramped up tempo build, and some real evocative vocals which really makes this track the most powerful and passionate song on the album, its really unlike other…
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